Sorry for lack of photo's ; however I think I may have left my camera at Luke's house in Keswick last night! will put some up later.
Anyway, an early start did not start that well when I realised that I had left my walking axe at home which meant that we had 3 ice-axes between us; not great for winter climbing...however we decided to persevere and eventually elected to go up to Grizedale Tarn and inspect conditions there. The slog up the Ghyll from Dunmail Raise was tricky in parts with quite a lot of ice on the track and upon arriving at a VERY frozen tarn, with writing on it no less from people who had carved things on the ice, we couldn't see Dollywagon Pike in the mist. As this meant that locating Dollywagon North crag (our original objective) would be tricky at best we then elected to go round to Tarn Crag and see what was in nick.
The slog round was long however upon arrival a couple of nice gully lines seemed to present themselves and after a sandwich stop the first one was inspected. A nice simple grade 1 was led by me with two axes; Luke following with one axe. Apart from a slight steepening near the top there was no problem, which given that I found 1 small nut placement in 100m of climbing was probably a good thing and we were soon descending back to the bags for more food and a conflab over what to do next.
Luke fancied having a go at leading the next gully along (Tarn Crag Gully III) which had its top section hidden from us by a bend but seemed very straightforward. He duly set off with the two axes and wandered easily up the first pitch.
After pleading to have a go at the next pitch as well he set up round the corner and things began to slow down. When it was my turn I discovered why...Luke had climbed quite a tricky section (especially for someone leading his first winter route) and was ensconsed under what appeared to an very un-Grade 1 thin ribbon of snow with a nice large boulder at the top; before opening onto a steep snow field to finish.
It was decided that I was going to have a go at this and I set off..Luke's suggestion of going right and avoiding the first difficult section probably saved the climb as it enabled a huge sling to come into play as a runner for me and to protect the belay...which at least made it justifiable. The main problem was that the snow was far from perfect and not all the turf frozen...making things quite "entertaining" in parts. Some gear went in occasionally, however the section around the boulder proved highly entertaining..wedging my back and rucksack ensured I was not going to fall but also made moving difficult.....a poor nut above the boulder protected a tricky couple of moves before the open snow field where the snow was pretty good. However the 1hr or so this had taken had eaten into our time allowance..luckily a good rock spike on top provided a decent belay for Luke to attempt with one axe!
Having done the first section I was able to send a second axe down on the rope for Luke to use and he promptly ran up the rest of the climb in next to no time....re-inforcing my belief that it might not have been as hard as I made it look - although having my placements as a guide would have helped him as the climbing was not difficult per se but did require some working out..
A rapid descent followed...today is a bit of a rest for me at least before Gill and I head off out tomorrow...
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